The Write Road: Stranger in a Strange Land

"Slowly standing up to peer around the alien landscape, the cautious traveler dusted himself off and wondered what in the world he'd just done." Me, first day on LinkedIn.

That’s pretty much how I felt when I signed up for a LinkedIn account back in 2013. Glancing around the unfamiliar social media platform, I easily surmised I wasn’t in Facebook Land any more.

There were no “farm villages” on which to raise cattle and crops. The bings and the bangs and the booms were all... muted.

The funny memes had morphed into inscrutable mimes.

And yet, in the silent solitude of this social platform, obviously built for business, I felt a quiet solace and welcomed peace.

“These,” I murmured to myself, “are my people.”

“And I shall be their copywriter.”

Then....

The panic set in.

The expensive mistake I made immediately

Here’s what nobody tells you about LinkedIn when you’re starting out: confidence without strategy is just expensive noise.

I was so sure this platform would be my goldmine that I signed up for the paid business plan on day three. Premium access. Advanced search. InMail credits. The works.

I felt like a prospector who’d just bought the best pickaxe money could buy... without bothering to learn where the actual gold deposits were.

For the next six months, I burned through that investment like kindling.

My profile was a confused mess—part resume, part sales pitch, part personal diary. I connected with anyone who’d accept. I sent messages that probably made people cringe. I posted content that vanished into the void without a trace.

The worst part? I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t figure out what.

When you’re doing everything and getting nowhere

You know that feeling when you’re working harder than ever but the results keep getting worse? That was me, month after month on LinkedIn.

I tried everything:

• Posting daily motivational quotes (crickets)

• Connecting with everyone in my extended network (awkward conversations, no clients)

• Writing long-form articles about copywriting (my mom liked them)

• Commenting on every post I could find (felt like I was shouting into a stadium)

Meanwhile, my premium subscription renewed. And renewed again. Each month, I’d look at that charge and think, “This is the month it’ll pay off.”

It didn’t.

The real gut-punch came when I realized I’d been on LinkedIn for almost a year and couldn’t point to a single client inquiry that came from the platform.

Not one.

I’d spent more money on LinkedIn than I’d made from it. And I’d invested hundreds of hours creating content, making connections, and sending messages into the void.

The moment everything shifted

I was about to cancel my subscription and write LinkedIn off as a loss when I stumbled across something that changed everything.

It wasn’t a guru’s course or a magic formula. It was a simple observation about how the platform actually worked—something that seems obvious in hindsight but was invisible to me while I was thrashing around trying everything.

I realized I’d been using LinkedIn like it was Facebook for business people. Post content, hope people see it, wait for something to happen.

But LinkedIn isn’t a broadcasting platform.

It’s a research tool, a targeting system, and a professional database all rolled into one.

The people who succeed on LinkedIn aren’t the ones shouting the loudest or posting the most. They’re the ones who understand exactly who they’re looking for and use the platform like a precision instrument to find them.

Once I understood that distinction, everything changed. My profile. My connection strategy. My messaging. My entire approach.

It didn’t happen overnight. But within a few months, I started having actual conversations with people who needed what I offered. Real prospects, not just random connections.

The first client inquiry that came directly from LinkedIn felt like validation that I’d finally figured something out. Since then, LinkedIn has become one of my steadiest sources of quality leads—the kind where prospects already understand what I do before we even talk.

Why I’m telling you this

I see writers making the exact same mistakes I made. Thrashing around. Trying everything. Getting frustrated. Ready to give up.

Or worse—they never start because LinkedIn looks too complicated, too corporate, too… different from the social media they’re used to.

The truth is, LinkedIn can be the fastest path to finding clients in your target industries. But only if you understand how it actually works.

Not the surface-level “optimize your profile and post regularly” advice that everyone parrots. The real strategy that turns LinkedIn from a social media platform into a client acquisition system.

That’s what I want to share with you—not the generic tips, but the specific approach that transformed LinkedIn from my most expensive mistake into my most valuable business asset.

Half of my 1-2 client gaining punch (LinkedIn profile and copywriter website).

In my articles, I’ll break down exactly what I learned during those frustrating early months and show you the strategies that finally worked. The ones that helped me connect with decision-makers, land clients, and build relationships that have sustained my business for over a decade.

We’ll continue to finetune your profile to get it ready for prime time.

Stuff that works with either a paid or a free version.

Sound good?

In upcoming articles, I’ll show you how to avoid the year of expensive trial-and-error I went through and get straight to what actually produces results.

Because twelve years later, I’m still on LinkedIn.

But now I know exactly what I’m doing there.

And soon, you will too.

Until next time,

Keep moving forward,

Steve M.

In the comments, tell us what you do on LinkedIn to gain prospects’ attention and move toward turning them into clients. Inquiring minds want to know!